WHFB: Dark Elves vs Skaven 2013 03 09

On Saturday Byakhee Jim and I played a 3k WHFB game. Ater clearing up from Friday when Byakhee Gavin and I gamed AVBCW and BoB, I was sitting totally unenthused trying to sort out an army list. Maybe its because I’ve p[played DE too much, maybe it was because I was tired (the Alarm Cat went off at 4am that morning) but with 15 minutes to go, the army spreadsheet was empty. A phone call from Jim, he’s clearing up parental mess, and all of a sudden I get enthused with some ideas on my army.

Having had a run of failures I’d already cogitated on what I was doing wrong, so with 40 minutes on the clock I set to work redesigning my army around my available units. As I also knew I was facing Jim’s Skaven, I knew some of his tactics so for once I actually prepared for them.

The army list 95% complete on his arrival was very experimental, and whilst he got his 200+ troops I finished it of.

After agreeing the rules for the Arcane Ruins we would be fighting over we got the game going. Jim was using Skaven slaves as “meat shields”, however, as it panned out this was not entirely in his favour. What also did not pan out in his favour was blowing up his L4 Grey Seer and taking half the large unit of Skaven he was in with him into the realms of chaos…

Use it or lose it. Despite my Crystal of Midnight not stealing a spell from his Skaven magic users, the Hydras lunged forth and used their breath weapons on the hapless Skaven. I caught his main unit of Skaven, his Skaven slaves, and his Plague Monks. I then managed to use the Guiding Eye successfully with what little RXBs I had to whittle down more of his troops. My Cold Ones did a sharp left turn and repositioned themselves to take on the left flank.

Combat started early, with a bunch of Giant Rats charging my DE RXB unit on my right, and failing to see it off. Jim’s plan had been to charge his unit of PLague Monks in as well, but it seemed they were only offering moral support only….this is where Jim’s quite good plan started to unravel big time. His Skaven Slaves couldn’t get out of the way of the main Plague Monk unit’s way, so he ended backing them (the plague monks) off.

In the middle he charged the Hydra with his main unit, only to ind the dice were against him and the Hydra inflicted yet more wounds on this unit that had now lost nearly half his its number

On the other flank, he charged his slaves ninto the COK, and then charged the Rat Ogres through the woods into the flank of the COK – only to find on close reading of the rules he lost a lot o benefits. The COK, healthily bolstered by the Hydra Banner saw of both of these units and started the domino effect that Jim himself regularly uses.

The RXB unit on my right held out and saw of the Giant Rats, the second RXB unit charged in against the Skaven fighting the Hydra in the middle and the Harpies pounced on the Warp Lightning Cannon as had been planned wiping it out. At the same time, the Hydra and RXB unit in the centre finished off his main unit, causing panic tests to continue disrupting his line.

The Harpies and Hydra on the right flank moved out of harms way, and the Plague Monks went in for the Silver Talons, wiping nearly half of them out, only to end up losing the combat.

Sadly the RXB unit was charged by the smaller Plague Monk unit, and didn’t do as well as it had done against the Giant Rats. Running away.

The COK, Dark Riders, and RXB unit did make a good charge in against the (9) Rat Ogres crushing them completely – that unit ahd been my main worry.

Jim’s dice did let him down on several occasions…he needed 4s….Jim continued on to the bitter end.

Victory to the Dark Elves, the Skaven are now preparing to welcome their new overlords:

By the end of the game, I’d seen off his entire right flank, trashed his centre, killed or run of his few war machines, and destroyed his main Plague Monk unit with Warp Fire thrower leaving one unit of ~20 Plague Monks relatively unscathed. I’d lost one RXB unit plus L2 Sorceress, lost half the Silver Talons and half of my block of ordinary Spearmen, but still 20 had harpies, 10 Dark Riders, 5 COKs, 8 RXBs and 2 Hydras on the loose.

For once I’d stuck some combat heroes into units, and this worked well, along with following nthe dictum: “Know your enemy”. At a number of points I got lucky, but that would not have been enough to win this battle.

There’s a few other things I did, but they’re little secrets. I also took loads of photos with Louis the camera, and they can be found here.

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